I don't dance?

Professor Wendy Lama, who’s teaching us about ecotourism, suggested that maybe some of us would be interested in bollywood dancing lessons in Gangtok. Although I am far from a dancer, I decided to go see what this would be like. I’ve heard that because of the success of Slumdog Millionaire, bollywood dancing is getting popular in the U.S. ‘Actually learning it in India would be really cool, plus the only people who will see me dancing will be the same people I’ve spent almost every moment with since August so they won’t judge me,’ I thought.
The troop headed out Monday after class and lunch. Norah, Katelyn, Jeff Schmitz, Lindsey, Jessica, Safa, Rachel Johnsen, and myself. Some of us come out of enthusiasm for bollywood, or enthusiasm for dance, or because they’ve got enthusiasm to spare. Our teacher, Amun (?), is a fairly young woman who maybe has Nepali (?) background. She changes into a bright green athletic suit, and we all exchange knowing looks. This is going to be good.
We begin with a warm up of simple, bouncy steps, but she picks up the pace early. Then she adds music. Instead of bollywood music, it’s Chumbawumba’s Tubthumping (a classic of the 90s!). We all just laugh and go with it, knowing that the actual dancing will be to Hindi music. By the end of the song, we’ve shed all our layers of scarves and sweaters.
Immediately she starts showing us the moves for the dance. Then she shows us some more. And a few more. Then it’s time to do it to music! Once again we all exchange looks, some of us maybe not sure that we’re quite ready to put it to music, but we’ll just go with it. The song is called “Its Rocking” from the movie Kya Love Story Hai.
As soon as we finish one section, we learn the next. It continues building like this at a rapid pace (at least to me, as a non-dancer). Luckily I had Norah in front of me who was getting it faster than me. We must have learned half of a Bollywood song… which means about 3 minutes of choreography. By the end of the hour, we are all sweating. The mirrors of the small studio have fogged up, despite the opening of the few windows there.
It’s SO much fun though! Bollywood danced has a very distinct style, with lots of shoulder movement, but really every part of your body is moving in a complementary way. I look pretty silly while its happening, but its a good time and a good workout to prepare us for our trek!